You’re welcome, thanks for taking time to write up a good counter argument. I agree alot with what you said and also do partially feel that we should legalize everything and let people reap what they sow. I just don’t really know if letting everyone buy heroin from a dispensary would result in a net negative or positive for people in the long run. While peoples lives aren’t gaurenteed to be destroyed after one or a few uses, theres many horrible stories of just that happening, again usually with heroin and some ridiculously addictive opioids. Im not talking about the over dramatized cherry picked DARE stories that you hear in school. Im talking about the very real testimony of SpontaneousH and many others will forever haunt me as an important warning. Its easy to see how something that gives people the biggest dopamine high of their entire life and is also extremely physically addictive ultimately consuming them. The homeless that need to satiate their next high usually aren’t hooked on weed.
So yeah its just a really nuanced and hard thing to be one way or the other for me. There is some arbitrary hypocracy on what constitues soft vs hard drug and I can see an argument for legalizing everything for reasons already stated, but I also think that the ready availability and societal acceptance of things like heroin might be a net negative on the long term health of a society already filled with mental illness and a crushing need for escapism. Its easy to say justify legalizing from a self-interested user perspective, but when members of your friends family and children start legally ODing? Not so much.
Should adults be allowed to do what they want with their health? Yes. But try telling that to the grieving family of a depressed 22yo that overdosed for the 6th time in a year on legal readily available stuff and finally stayed down for good.